Tugboat captain remembered for saving lives of boat crew

Lynn Melancon and his five-man crew went flying, slamming into different parts of their boat after hitting a beam in Bayou Perot one December evening a year and a half ago.

Katie UrbaszewskiStaff Writer

Lynn Melancon and his five-man crew went flying, slamming into different parts of their boat after hitting a beam in Bayou Perot one December evening a year and a half ago.As their boat began taking on water, the injured crew members thought they were going to die.“My brother-in-law, he grabbed me and said, ‘If we go in the water, we're going to drown. I can't swim. I can't move my legs,' ” Melancon recalled. “At this time it was dark, so nobody would've known to find us until the next morning.”That's when Chad Breaux, 46, who was navigating his own boat nearby, saw the crew in distress and brought them to safety.The tugboat captain saved their lives that night, Melancon said, remembering the now fallen mariner. Breaux died last week from serious burns from a fire, when a tugboat he was captaining in that same bayou ran over a Chevron pipeline.Just as Breaux and his crew helped Melancon and his men in 2011, Melancon said he played a role in rescuing Breaux after the March 12 fire. Melancon's crew was working in the same area, and when Melancon spotted the fire, he called up Texas Petroleum, which had the crew closest to the fire.They were unaware anything had happened.“They've got compressors. It's real loud,” Melancon said. “If something blew up, they didn't hear it.”Melancon went to the scene with Lafourche Sheriff's Office Water Patrol, but Texas Petroleum employees had already taken Breaux and his crew to shore. Melancon, who never got to speak to Breaux after the explosion, said he wishes Breaux's story had the happy ending theirs did in December 2011. Back then, “he called me after, making sure I was OK and checking on everybody. He was awesome. He was an awesome guy,” Melancon said.The two crashes took place about 3 to 5 miles from each other, he said. Breaux worked for Settoon Towing for about three years, said the company's vice president Mike Ellis. “That's what mariners do — they help each other,” Ellis said. Breaux was “a great man.”The Houma resident was a boat captain for about 20 years, his family said.Breaux was the only seriously injured crew member involved in the March crash, Ellis said. The three other crew members involved are OK.The Coast Guard is still investigating the crash, so Ellis said he could not talk about how the crash happened until the investigation is complete.

Staff Writer Katie Urbaszewski can be reached at 448-7617 or katie.urbaszewski@dailycomet.com.